Channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and sounding reference signal (SRS) triggering

ABSTRACT

Systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for joint CSI-RS and SRS triggering. Embodiments may include DCI format(s) to support joint CSI-RS and SRS triggering, and UE QCL assumption when CSI-RS and SRS are jointly triggered.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to PCT Application PCT/CN2018/110990, filed Oct. 19, 2018, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/664,448, filed Apr. 30, 2018, the disclosures of both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

In Fifth Generation (5G) systems, there are two uplink transmission schemes: codebook based transmission and non-codebook based transmission. For non-codebook based transmission, a next generation NodeB (gNB) can configure one aperiodic Channel State Information (CSI)-Reference Signal (RS) associated with a Sounding RS (SRS) resource set. Then, a user equipment (UE) may calculate the downlink channel based on the aperiodic CSI-RS and derive the uplink precoder based on this estimated downlink channel, assuming there should be uplink-downlink channel reciprocity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 depicts an example of joint triggering of aperiodic SRS and aperiodic CSI-RS by a single DCI in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 depicts an example of one scenario of joint triggering of CSI-RS and SRS by DCI format 0_1 in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of cross CC/BWP based joint triggering of CSI-RS and SRS in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts an example procedure to derive the QCL information for CSI-RS when jointly triggered with SRS in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 depicts an example measurement model in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts an architecture of a system of a network in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts an architecture of a system including a first core network in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 depicts an architecture of a system including a second core network in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts an example of infrastructure equipment in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 10 depicts example components of a computer platform in accordance with various embodiments

FIG. 11 depicts example components of baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of various protocol functions that may be used for various protocol stacks in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrase “A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B).

In Fifth Generation (5G) systems, there are two uplink transmission schemes: codebook based transmission and non-codebook based transmission. For non-codebook based transmission, a next generation NodeB (gNB) can configure one aperiodic Channel State Information (CSI)-Reference Signal (RS) associated with a Sounding RS (SRS) resource set. Then, a user equipment (UE) may calculate the downlink channel based on the aperiodic CSI-RS and derive the uplink precoder based on this estimated downlink channel, assuming there should be uplink-downlink channel reciprocity. For Frequency Range (FR) 1, which is for below 6 GHz, the gNB can jointly trigger this aperiodic CSI-RS and SRS by a single Downlink Control Information (DCI), where the aperiodic CSI-RS is transmitted in the same slot as the DCI. Both CSI-RS and SRS are triggered by the SRSRequest field in DCI.

However, in New Radio (NR) systems, there are multiple DCI formats that can trigger aperiodic SRS, including: DCI format 0_1, which may be used to trigger uplink PUSCH, downlink CSI-RS (using the CSI-RS request field) and SRS (using the SRS request field); DCI format 1_1, which may be used to trigger downlink PDSCH and SRS; and DCI format 2_3, which may be used to trigger a group of SRS for multiple UEs.

Various embodiments herein provide mechanisms for joint CSI-RS and SRS triggering in a DCI for NR, including determination of which NR DCI formats (e.g., format 0_1, 1_1, and/or 2_3) support joint triggering of CSI-RS and SRS triggering.

Further, for NR Frequency Range 2 (FR2) (e.g., above 6 GHz), the UE may use different receive beams to receive different reference signal. Embodiments herein describe how to determine the quasi-co-location (QCL) information for the joint triggered CSI-RS and SRS.

DCI Format to Support Joint CSI-RS and SRS Triggering

In various embodiments, a SRS request field (e.g., SRSRequest) in DCI of a NR wireless cellular system may jointly trigger an SRS and a CSI-RS. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a PDCCH 102 that includes DCI with a SRS request field that jointly triggers a CSI-RS 104 and an SRS 106. In some embodiments, the CSI-RS 104 may be transmitted in a same slot as the PDCCH 102.

NR DCI formats 0_1, 1_1, and/or 2_3 may include one field of SRSRequest, which trigger the SRS. Therefore, one or more of these DCI formats can be used to jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS with the included SRSRequest field.

In one example, the SRS Request field in DCI with DCI format 0_1 may jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS, while the SRS Request field in DCI with DCI format 1_1 and 2_3 may not jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS (e.g., may trigger SRS without also triggering CSI-RS). In another example, the SRS Request field in DCI with DCI format 1_1 may jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS, while the SRS Request field in DCI with DCI format 0_1 and 2_3 may only trigger SRS. In another example, the SRS Request field in both DCI with DCI format 0_1 and DCI with DCI format 1_1 may jointly trigger SRS and CSI-RS, while the SRS Request field in DCI with DCI format 2_3 may only trigger SRS.

In some embodiments, for the DCI format which is used to trigger SRS but cannot jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS, it cannot be used to trigger SRS resource set for non-codebook based transmission. Alternatively, such a DCI format can be used to trigger SRS resource set for non-codebook based transmission, but the associated CSI-RS would not be triggered.

Further, DCI format 0_1 may include an SRS request field and a CSI-RS request field. Accordingly, in embodiments in which the SRSRequest field in DCI with DCI format 0_1 jointly triggers the CSI-RS and SRS, it may be possible that two CSI-RS can be triggered by this DCI format: a first CSI-RS is triggered by SRS request field, and a second CSI-RS is triggered by the CSI-RS request field. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of this, in which a PDCCH 202 (which may have DCI format 0_1) jointly triggers a first CSI-RS 204 and an SRS 206 based on a SRS request field, and also triggers a second CSI-RS 208 based on a CSI-RS request field.

In other embodiments, if DCI format 0_1 is used to jointly trigger the CSI-RS and SRS, it cannot be used to trigger another aperiodic CSI-RS by the CSI-RS request field.

When the DCI triggers two CSI-RS resources (e.g., a first CSI-RS based on the SRS Request field and a second CSI-RS based on the CSI-RS Request field), the CSI-RS resources of the first and second CSI-RSs should be mapped to orthogonal time and frequency resources. Hence, in some embodiments, if the triggered CSI-RS resources share the same resource ID, which denotes they are configured with the same resource mapping pattern in a slot, they should be transmitted in different slots. The base station (e.g., gNB) may schedule the triggered CSI-RSs to ensure that they are mapped to orthogonal time and frequency resources.

In some embodiments, a UE may report (e.g., in capability information transmitted by the UE to the base station) whether it supports joint triggering of CSI-RS and SRS by the SRS request field in DCI. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE may report whether it supports triggering of a first CSI-RS by the SRS request field and a second CSI-RS by a CSI-RS request field in a single DCI.

In some embodiments, if the triggered CSI-RS/SRS and DCI are not in the same bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier (CC), the UE may assume that the DCI is only used to trigger SRS. For example, the UE may receive a DCI in a first BWP or CC that includes a SRS request field to trigger a SRS in a second BWP or CC that is different than the first BWP or CC. Accordingly, the SRS request field may trigger the SRS without jointly triggering a CSI-RS. However, if a DCI in the same format includes a SRS request field to trigger a SRS in the same BWP or CC as the DCI, then the SRS request field jointly triggers the SRS and a CSI-RS in the BWP or CC.

Alternatively, the UE may assume that the triggered CSI-RS is transmitted in slot n+k where the triggering DCI is transmitted in slot n. The value k may be configured by higher layer signaling or fixed (e.g., providing minimal slot offset for BWP switching). FIG. 3 illustrates an example in which a PDCCH 302 transmitted in slot n on a first BWP or CC jointly triggers a CSI-RS 304 and an SRS 306 in a second BWP or CC. The CSI-RS 304 may be transmitted in slot n+k, while the SRS may be transmitted in slot n+k+x.

Joint Triggering of CSI-RS and SRS in FR2

In FR2, the UE may maintain a plurality of receive (Rx) beams. The gNB can use Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) type D, which indicates the spatial Rx parameters, to indicate the Rx beam for downlink signals. So to apply the Rx beam for CSI-RS reception indicated by gNB, the UE needs some time gap to decode DCI first. In some embodiments, the UE may report the time gap threshold needed between the DCI that includes the QCL parameters and reception of the corresponding downlink signal.

In an embodiment, if QCL type D is configured for the triggered CSI-RS, when scheduling offset between the last symbol of DCI and the triggered CSI-RS is below or equal to the threshold the UE reported, the UE may determine that the CSI-RS should be spatially QCLed with the control channel resource set (CORESET) in the latest (most recent) slot. If there are multiple CORESETs configured for the latest slot, the UE may assume the CSI-RS should be spatially QCLed with the CORESET of the slot with the lowest CORESET ID.

If the scheduling offset between the last symbol of the DCI and the triggered CSI-RS is above the time gap threshold, the UE may determine that the CSI-RS should be spatially QCLed with the configured transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for the CSI-RS; if TCI is not configured, the UE may assume that the CSI-RS should be spatially QCLed with the scheduling PDCCH (e.g., that included the DCI).

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method 400 to determine QCL information for CSI-RS when jointly triggered with SRS, in accordance with various embodiments. Aspects of the method 400 may be similar to the embodiments described above. The method 400 may be performed by a UE or a portion thereof.

At 404, the method may include determining if the scheduling offset between the DCI and the triggered CSI-RS (e.g., jointly triggered by the SRS request field along with an SRS) is less than (e.g., less than or equal to) the time gap threshold of the UE (which may be reported by the UE). If it is determined at 404 that the scheduling offset is less than the time gap threshold of the UE, then, at 408, the method 400 may include determining that the triggered CSI-RS is spatially QCLed with a CORESET in the most recent slot (e.g., before the slot of the DCI). If multiple CORESETs are configured for the most recent slot, then the triggered CSI-RS is spatially QCLed with the COREST of the slot with the lowest CORESET ID.

If it is determined at 404 that the scheduling offset is greater than the time gap threshold of the UE, then, at 412, the method 400 may include determining whether a TCI state is configured for the triggered CSI-RS. The TCI state may be configured by RRC signaling for each CSI-RS resource. If a TCI state is configured for the triggered CSI-RS, then, at 416, the method 400 may include determining that the triggered CSI-RS is spatially QCLed with the configured TCI. If a TCI state is not configured for the triggered CSI-RS, then, at 420, the method 400 may include determining that the triggered CSI-RS is spatially QCLed with the PDCCH that scheduled the CSI-RS.

As an alternative to method 400, the UE may expect that the scheduling offset between the DCI and the triggered CSI-RS should be above the threshold of the UE. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE may also expect that the TCI state is configured for the triggered CSI-RS for FR2.

As another alternative, the UE the scheduling offset may always be below the time gap threshold of the UE (for example, when the triggered CSI-RS is required to be in the same slot as the triggering DCI). Accordingly, in some such embodiments, the UE may assume that the CSI-RS is QCLed with a CORESET in the most recent slot, as described above for 408 of FIG. 4.

While the embodiments for determination of QCL parameters are described with respect to FR2, embodiments may additionally or alternatively be applied to Frequency Range 1 (FR1).

In further embodiments, one or more of the following options may be used to determine the QCL information for the aperiodic CSI-RS for joint triggering of CSI-RS and SRS.

In a first option (Option 1), the aperiodic CSI-RS is QCLed with the downlink reference signal configured by qcl-Info in a CSI-AssociatedReportConfigInfo in a triggering state, which can be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling. In one example, the aperiodic CSI-RS can be QCLed with the first CSI-AssociatedReportConfigInfo in the first triggering state.

In a second option (Option 2): The aperiodic CSI-RS is QCLed with the downlink reference signal configured by pathlossReferenceRS in a SRS resource set, where pathlossReferenceRS is used to indicate the downlink reference signal used for uplink power control.

In a third option (Option 3): The aperiodic CSI-RS is QCLed with the reference signal configured in TCI state for a CORESET. The CORESET can be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling or determined by the CORESET ID and/or slot index. In one example, the aperiodic CSI-RS is QCLed with the reference signal configured in TCI state for a CORESET in latest slot with lowest ID if multiple CORESETs are configured. In another example, the aperiodic CSI-RS is QCLed with the reference signal configured in TCI state for a CORESET which includes the PDCCH triggering the CSI-RS.

In a fourth option (Option 4): The aperiodic CSI-RS is QCLed with downlink reference signal in a TCI state selected from the TCI state list configured by higher layer signaling, which can be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling. In an example, the CSI-RS can be QCLed with downlink reference signal in the first TCI state active by MAC Control Element (MAC CE) for PDSCH.

Beam Management

Beam management refers to a set of L1/L2 procedures to acquire and maintain a set of transmission/reception point(s) (TRP or TRxP) and/or UE beams that can be used for DL and UL transmission/reception. Beam management includes various operations or procedures, such as beam determination, beam management, beam reporting, and beam sweeping operations/procedures. Beam determination refers to TRxP(s) or UE ability to select of its own Tx/Rx beam(s). Beam measurement refers to TRP or UE ability to measure characteristics of received beamformed signals. Beam reporting refers the UE ability to report information of beamformed signal(s) based on beam measurement. Beam sweeping refers to operation(s) of covering a spatial area, with beams transmitted and/or received during a time interval in a predetermined manner.

Tx/Rx beam correspondence at a TRxP holds if at least one of the following conditions are satisfied: TRxP is able to determine a TRxP Rx beam for the uplink reception based on UE's downlink measurement on TRxP's one or more Tx beams; and TRxP is able to determine a TRxP Tx beam for the downlink transmission based on TRxP's uplink measurement on TRxP's one or more Rx beams. Tx/Rx beam correspondence at a UE holds if at least one of the following is satisfied: UE is able to determine a UE Tx beam for the uplink transmission based on UE's downlink measurement on UE's one or more Rx beams; UE is able to determine a UE Rx beam for the downlink reception based on TRxP's indication based on uplink measurement on UE's one or more Tx beams; and Capability indication of UE beam correspondence related information to TRxP is supported.

In some implementations, DL beam management includes procedures P-1, P-2, and P-3. Procedure P-1 is used to enable UE measurement on different TRxP Tx beams to support selection of TRxP Tx beams/UE Rx beam(s). For beamforming at TRxP, procedure P-1 typically includes a intra/inter-TRxP Tx beam sweep from a set of different beams. For beamforming at the UE, procedure P-1 typically includes a UE Rx beam sweep from a set of different beams.

Procedure P-2 is used to enable UE measurement on different TRxP Tx beams to possibly change inter/intra-TRxP Tx beam(s). Procedure P-2 may be a special case of procedure P-1 wherein procedure P-2 is used for a possibly smaller set of beams for beam refinement than procedure P-1. Procedure P-3 is used to enable UE measurement on the same TRxP Tx beam to change UE Rx beam in the case UE uses beamforming. Procedures P-1, P-2, and P-3 may be used for aperiodic beam reporting.

UE measurements based on RS for beam management (at least CSI-RS) is composed of K beams (where K is a total number of configured beams), and the UE reports measurement results of N selected Tx beams (where N may or may not be a fixed number). The procedure based on RS for mobility purpose is not precluded. Beam information that is to be reported includes measurement quantities for the N beam(s) and information indicating N DL Tx beam(s), if N<K. Other information or data may be included in or with the beam information. When a UE is configured with K′>1 non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources, a UE can report N′ CSI-RS Resource Indicator (CRIs).

The UE can trigger a mechanism to recover from beam failure, which is referred to a “beam recovery”, “beam failure recovery request procedure”, and/or the like. A beam failure event may occur when the quality of beam pair link(s) of an associated control channel falls below a threshold, when a time-out of an associated timer occurs, or the like. The beam recovery mechanism is triggered when beam failure occurs. The network may explicitly configure the UE with resources for UL transmission of signals for recovery purposes. Configurations of resources are supported where the base station (e.g., a TRP, gNB, or the like) is listening from all or partial directions (e.g., a random access region). The UL transmission/resources to report beam failure can be located in the same time instance as a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) or resources orthogonal to PRACH resources, or at a time instance (configurable for a UE) different from PRACH. Transmission of DL signal is supported for allowing the UE to monitor the beams for identifying new potential beams.

For beam failure recovery, a beam failure may be declared if one, multiple, or all serving PDCCH beams fail. The beam failure recovery request procedure is initiated when a beam failure is declared. For example, the beam failure recovery request procedure may be used for indicating to a serving gNB (or TRP) of a new SSB or CSI-RS when beam failure is detected on a serving SSB(s)/CSI-RS(s). A beam failure may be detected by the lower layers and indicated to a Media Access Control (MAC) entity of the UE.

Beam management also includes providing or not providing beam-related indications. When beam-related indication is provided, information pertaining to UE-side beamforming/receiving procedure used for CSI-RS-based measurement can be indicated through QCL to the UE. The same or different beams on the control channel and the corresponding data channel transmissions may be supported.

DL beam indications are based on a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state(s). The TCI state(s) are indicated in a TCI list that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) and/or Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE).

Antenna Port Quasi Co-Location

The UE can be configured with a list of up to M TCI-State configurations within the higher layer parameter PDSCH-Config to decode PDSCH according to a detected PDCCH with DCI intended for the UE and the given serving cell, where M depends on the UE capability. Each TCI-State contains parameters for configuring a quasi co-location relationship between one or two downlink reference signals and the DM-RS ports of the PDSCH. The quasi co-location relationship is configured by the higher layer parameter qcl-Type1 for the first DL RS, and qcl-Type2 for the second DL RS (if configured). For the case of two DL RSs, the QCL types shall not be the same, regardless of whether the references are to the same DL RS or different DL RSs. The quasi co-location types corresponding to each DL RS is given by the higher layer parameter qcl-Type in QCL-Info and may take one of the following values: QCL-TypeA: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}; QCL-TypeB: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}; QCL-TypeC: {average delay, Doppler shift}; QCL-TypeD: {Spatial Rx parameter}.

The UE receives an activation command used to map up to 8 TCI states to the codepoints of the DCI field ‘Transmission Configuration Indication’. When the HARQ-ACK corresponding to the PDSCH carrying the activation command is transmitted in slot n, the indicated mapping between TCI states and codepoints of the DCI field ‘Transmission Configuration Indication’ should be applied starting from slot n+3N_(slot) ^(subframe,μ)+1. After the UE receives the higher layer configuration of TCI states and before reception of the activation command, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the SS/PBCH block determined in the initial access procedure with respect to ‘QCL-TypeA’, and when applicable, also with respect to ‘QCL-TypeD’.

If a UE is configured with the higher layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI that is set as ‘enabled’ for the CORESET scheduling the PDSCH, the UE assumes that the TCI field is present in the DCI format 1_1 of the PDCCH transmitted on the CORESET. If tci-PresentInDCI is not configured for the CORESET scheduling the PDSCH or the PDSCH is scheduled by a DCI format 1_0, for determining PDSCH antenna port quasi co-location, the UE assumes that the TCI state for the PDSCH is identical to the TCI state applied for the CORESET used for the PDCCH transmission.

If the tci-PresentInDCI is set as ‘enabled’, when the PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 1_1, the UE shall use the TCI-State according to the value of the ‘Transmission Configuration Indication’ field in the detected PDCCH with DCI for determining PDSCH antenna port quasi co-location. The UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the RS(s) in the TCI state with respect to the QCL type parameter(s) given by the indicated TCI state if the time offset between the reception of the DL DCI and the corresponding PDSCH is equal to or greater than a threshold Threshold-Sched-Offset, where the threshold is based on reported UE capability.

For both the cases when tci-PresentInDCI is set to ‘enabled’ and tci-PresentInDCI is not configured, if the offset between the reception of the DL DCI and the corresponding PDSCH is less than the threshold Threshold-Sched-Offset, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the RS(s) in the TCI state with respect to the QCL parameter(s) used for PDCCH quasi co-location indication of the lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within the active BWP of the serving cell are configured for the UE. If none of configured TCI states contains ‘QCL-TypeD’, the UE shall obtain the other QCL assumptions from the indicated TCI states for its scheduled PDSCH irrespective of the time offset between the reception of the DL DCI and the corresponding PDSCH.

For a periodic CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info, the UE shall expect that a TCI-State indicates one of the following quasi-colocation type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeC’ with an SS/PBCH block and, when applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same SS/PBCH block, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeC’ with an SS/PBCH block and, when applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in an NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter repetition, or

For an aperiodic CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info, the UE shall expect that a TCI-State indicates ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a periodic CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same periodic CSI-RS resource.

For a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured without higher layer parameter trs-Info and without the higher layer parameter repetition, the UE shall expect that a TCI-State indicates one of the following quasi co-location type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with an SS/PBCH block, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in a         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter         repetition, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeB’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info when ‘QCL-TypeD’         is not applicable.

For a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter repetition, the UE shall expect that a TCI-State indicates one of the following quasi co-location type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in a         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter         repetition, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeC’ with an SS/PBCH block and, when applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same SS/PBCH block.

For the DM-RS of PDCCH, the UE shall expect that a TCI-State indicates one of the following quasi co-location type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in an         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter         repetition, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured without higher layer parameter trs-Info and without         higher layer parameter repetition, when ‘QCL-TypeD’ is not         applicable.

For the DM-RS of PDSCH, the UE shall expect that a TCI-State indicates one of the following quasi co-location type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured with higher layer parameter trs-Info and, when         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in an         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher layer parameter         repetition, or     -   QCL-TypeA’ with CSI-RS resource in a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet         configured without higher layer parameter trs-Info and without         repetition and, when applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same         CSI-RS resource.         Beam Failure Recovery Request

A beam failure recovery request could be delivered over dedicated PRACH or PUCCH resources. For example, a UE can be configured, for a serving cell, with a set q ₀ of periodic CSI-RS resource configuration indexes by higher layer parameter Beam-Failure-Detection-RS-ResourceConfig and with a set q ₁ of CSI-RS resource configuration indexes and/or SS/PBCH block indexes by higher layer parameter Candidate-Beam-RS-List for radio link quality measurements on the serving cell. If there is no configuration, the beam failure detection could be based on CSI-RS or SSB, which is spatially Quasi Co-Located (QCLed) with the PDCCH Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS). For example, if the UE is not provided with the higher layer parameter Beam-Failure-Detection-RS-ResourceConfig, the UE determines q ₀ to include SS/PBCH blocks and periodic CSI-RS configurations with same values for higher layer parameter TCI-StatesPDCCH as for control resource sets (CORESET) that the UE is configured for monitoring PDCCH.

The physical layer of a UE assesses the radio link quality according to a set q ₀ of resource configurations against a threshold Qout,LR. The threshold Qout,LR corresponds to a default value of higher layer parameter RLM-IS-OOS-thresholdConfig and Beam-failure-candidate-beam-threshold, respectively. For the set q ₀, the UE assesses the radio link quality only according to periodic CSI-RS resource configurations or SS/PBCH blocks that are quasi co-located, with the DM-RS of PDCCH receptions DM-RS monitored by the UE. The UE applies the configured Qin,LR threshold for the periodic CSI-RS resource configurations. The UE applies the Qout,LR threshold for SS/PBCH blocks after scaling a SS/PBCH block transmission power with a value provided by higher layer parameter Pc_SS.

If a beam failure indication has been received by a MAC entity from lower layers, then the MAC entity starts a beam failure recovery timer (beamFailureRecoveryTimer) and initiates a Random Access procedure. If the beamFailureRecoveryTimer expires, then the MAC entity indicates a beam failure recovery request failure to upper layers. If a DL assignment or UL grant has been received (e.g., on a PDCCH addressed for a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI)), then the MAC entity may stop and reset beamFailureRecoveryTimer and consider the beam failure recovery request procedure to be successfully completed.

Beam Measurement

The UE in the RRC_CONNECTED mode is to measure one or multiple beams of a cell, and the measurement results (e.g., power values) are averaged to derive the cell quality.

The UE derives cell measurement results by measuring one or multiple beams associated per cell as configured by the network. For all cell measurement results in RRC_CONNECTED mode, the UE applies layer 3 filtering before using the measured results for evaluation of reporting criteria and measurement reporting. For cell measurements, the network can configure RSRP, RSRQ, and/or SINR as a trigger quantity. Reporting quantities can be the same as the trigger quantity or combinations of quantities (e.g., RSRP and RSRQ; RSRP and SINR; RSRQ and SINR; RSRP, RSRQ and SINR).

The network may also configure the UE to report measurement information per beam, which can either be measurement results per beam with respective beam identifier(s) or only beam identifier(s)). If beam measurement information is configured to be included in measurement reports, the UE applies the layer 3 beam filtering. However, the exact layer 1 filtering of beam measurements used to derive cell measurement results is implementation dependent.

The UE may be configured to consider a subset of the detected beams, such as the N best beams above an absolute threshold. Filtering takes place at two different levels include at the physical layer (PHY) to derive beam quality and then at the RRC level to derive cell quality from multiple beams. Cell quality from beam measurements may be derived in the same way for the serving cell(s) and for the non-serving cell(s).

Measurement reports contain the measurement results of the X best beams if the UE is configured to do so by the gNB. For channel state estimation purposes, the UE may be configured to measure CSI-RS resources and estimate a downlink channel state based on the CSI-RS measurements. The UE feeds the estimated channel state back to the gNB to be used in link adaptation.

An example measurement model is shown by FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, point A includes measurements (e.g., beam specific samples) internal to the PHY. Layer 1 (L1) filtering includes internal layer 1 filtering circuitry for filtering the inputs measured at point A. The exact filtering mechanisms and how the measurements are actually executed at the PHY may be implementation specific. The measurements (e.g., beam specific measurements) are reported by the L1 filtering to layer 3 (L3) beam filtering circuitry and the beam consolidation/selection circuitry at point A1.

The Beam Consolidation/Selection circuitry includes circuitry where beam specific measurements are consolidated to derive cell quality. For example, if N>1, else when N=1 the best beam measurement may be selected to derive cell quality. The configuration of the beam is provided by RRC signaling. A measurement (e.g., cell quality) derived from the beam-specific measurements are then be reported to L3 filtering for cell quality circuitry after beam consolidation/selection. In some embodiments, the reporting period at point B may be equal to one measurement period at point A1.

The L3 filtering for cell quality circuitry is configured to filter the measurements provided at point B. The configuration of the Layer 3 filters is provided by the aforementioned RRC signaling or different/separate RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the filtering reporting period at point C may be equal to one measurement period at point B. A measurement after processing in the layer 3 filter circuitry is provided to the evaluation of reporting criteria circuitry at point C. In some embodiments, the reporting rate may be identical to the reporting rate at point B. This measurement input may be used for one or more evaluation of reporting criteria.

Evaluation of reporting criteria circuitry is configured to check whether actual measurement reporting is necessary at point D. The evaluation can be based on more than one flow of measurements at reference point C. In one example, the evaluation may involve a comparison between different measurements, such as a measurement provided at point C and another measurement provided at point C1. In embodiments, the UE may evaluate the reporting criteria at least every time a new measurement result is reported at point C, C1. The reporting criteria configuration is provided by the aforementioned RRC signaling (UE measurements) or different/separate RRC signaling. After the evaluation, measurement report information (e.g., as a message) is sent on the radio interface at point D.

Referring back to point A1, measurements provided at point A1 are provided to L3 Beam filtering circuitry, which is configured to perform beam filtering of the provided measurements (e.g., beam specific measurements). The configuration of the beam filters is provided by the aforementioned RRC signaling or different/separate RRC signaling. In embodiments, the filtering reporting period at point E may be equal to one measurement period at A1. The K beams may correspond to the measurements on New Radio (NR)-synchronization signal (SS) block (SSB) or Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resources configured for L3 mobility by a gNB and detected by the UE at L1.

After processing in the beam filter measurement (e.g., beam-specific measurement), a measurement is provided to beam selection for reporting circuitry at point E. This measurement is used as an input for selecting the X measurements to be reported. In embodiments, the reporting rate may be identical to the reporting rate at point A1. The beam selection for beam reporting circuitry is configured to select the X measurements from the measurements provided at point E. The configuration of this module is provided by the aforementioned RRC signaling or different/separate RRC signaling. The beam measurement information to be included in a measurement report is sent or scheduled for transmission on the radio interface at point F.

L1 filtering introduces a certain level of measurement averaging. Exactly how and when the UE performs the required measurements is implementation specific to the point that the output at B fulfils the predefined performance requirements. L3 filtering for cell quality and related parameters do not introduce any delay in the sample availability between B and C. Measurement at point C, C1 is the input used in the event evaluation. L3 Beam filtering and related parameters do not introduce any delay in the sample availability between E and F

The measurement reports include a measurement identity of an associated measurement configuration that triggered the reporting; cell and beam measurement quantities to be included in measurement reports are configured by the network (e.g., using RRC signaling); the number of non-serving cells to be reported can be limited through configuration by the network; cells belonging to a blacklist configured by the network are not used in event evaluation and reporting, and conversely when a whitelist is configured by the network, only the cells belonging to the whitelist are used in event evaluation and reporting (by contrast), when a whitelist is configured by the network, only the cells belonging to the whitelist are used in event evaluation and reporting; and beam measurements to be included in measurement reports are configured by the network (beam identifier only, measurement result and beam identifier, or no beam reporting).

Intra-frequency neighbor (cell) measurements include SSB based intra-frequency measurement(s) and CSI-RS based intra-frequency measurements. SSB based intra-frequency measurements is/are defined as an SSB based intra-frequency measurement provided the center frequency of the SSB of the serving cell and the center frequency of the SSB of the neighbour cell are the same, and the subcarrier spacing of the two SSBs is also the same. CSI-RS based intra-frequency measurements is/are defined as a CSI-RS based intra-frequency measurement provided the bandwidth of the CSI-RS resource on the neighbour cell configured for measurement is within the bandwidth of the CSI-RS resource on the serving cell configured for measurement, and the subcarrier spacing of the two CSI-RS resources is the same.

Inter-frequency neighbor (cell) measurements include SSB based inter-frequency measurement(s) and CSI-RS based inter-frequency measurements. SSB based inter-frequency measurements is/are defined as an SSB based inter-frequency measurement provided the center frequency of the SSB of the serving cell and the center frequency of the SSB of the neighbour cell are different, or the subcarrier spacing of the two SSBs is different. For SSB based measurements, one measurement object corresponds to one SSB and the UE considers different SSBs as different cells. CSI-RS based inter-frequency measurements is/are measurement is defined as a CSI-RS based inter-frequency measurement provided the bandwidth of the CSI-RS resource on the neighbour cell configured for measurement is not within the bandwidth of the CSI-RS resource on the serving cell configured for measurement, or the subcarrier spacing of the two CSI-RS resources is different.

Whether a measurement is non-gap-assisted or gap-assisted depends on the capability of the UE, the active BWP of the UE and the current operating frequency. In non-gap-assisted scenarios, the UE is to carry out such measurements without measurement gaps. In gap-assisted scenarios, the UE cannot be assumed to be able to carry out such measurements without measurement gaps.

Systems and Implementations

FIG. 6 illustrates an example architecture of a system 600 of a network, in accordance with various embodiments. The following description is provided for an example system 600 that operates in conjunction with the LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like.

As shown by FIG. 6, the system 600 includes UE 601 a and UE 601 b (collectively referred to as “UEs 601” or “UE 601”). In this example, UEs 601 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 601 may be IoT UEs, which may comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 601 may be configured to connect, for example, communicatively couple, with an or RAN 610. In embodiments, the RAN 610 may be an NG RAN or a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 610 that operates in an NR or 5G system 600, and the term “E-UTRAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 610 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 600. The UEs 601 utilize connections (or channels) 603 and 604, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

In this example, the connections 603 and 604 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the other communications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs 601 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 605. The ProSe interface 605 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 605 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

The UE 601 b is shown to be configured to access an AP 606 (also referred to as “WLAN node 606,” “WLAN 606,” “WLAN Termination 606,” “WT 606” or the like) via connection 607. The connection 607 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 606 would comprise a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP 606 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 601 b, RAN 610, and AP 606 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and/or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 601 b in RRC_CONNECTED being configured by a RAN node 611 a-b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 601 b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 607) via IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection 607. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets.

The RAN 610 can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 611 a and 611 b (collectively referred to as “RAN nodes 611” or “RAN node 611”) that enable the connections 603 and 604. As used herein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” or the like may describe equipment that provides the radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred to as BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs or TRPs, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term “NG RAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node 611 that operates in an NR or 5G system 600 (for example, a gNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node 611 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 600 (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes 611 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN nodes 611 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCP split wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 611; a MAC/PHY split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 611; or a “lower PHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes 611. This virtualized framework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RAN nodes 611 to perform other virtualized applications. In some implementations, an individual RAN node 611 may represent individual gNB-DUs that are connected to a gNB-CU via individual F1 interfaces (not shown by FIG. 6). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., FIG. 9), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server that is located in the RAN 610 (not shown) or by a server pool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 611 may be next generation eNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations toward the UEs 601, and are connected to a 5GC (e.g., CN 820 of FIG. 8) via an NG interface (discussed infra).

In V2X scenarios one or more of the RAN nodes 611 may be or act as RSUs. The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 601 (vUEs 601). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications, as well as other cellular communications services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device(s) and some or all of the radiofrequency circuitry of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and/or a backhaul network.

Any of the RAN nodes 611 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 601. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 611 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 610 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In embodiments, the UEs 601 can be configured to communicate using OFDM communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 611 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMA communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SC-FDMA communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 611 to the UEs 601, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, the UEs 601, 602 and the RAN nodes 611, 612 communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as the “licensed spectrum” and/or the “licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as the “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensed band”). The licensed spectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, whereas the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs 601, 602 and the RAN nodes 611, 612 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UEs 601, 602 and the RAN nodes 611, 612 may perform one or more known medium-sensing operations and/or carrier-sensing operations in order to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs 601, 602, RAN nodes 611, 612, etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determine if a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism, called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 601 or 602, AP 606, or the like) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomly within the CWS, which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence of collision and reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmission bursts including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have an LAA contention window that is variable in length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and a MCOT (for example, a transmission burst) may be based on governmental regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE-Advanced systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of five CCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, the number of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the same for DL and UL.

CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. A primary service cell or PCell may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells are referred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC for both UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, while changing the PCC may require the UE 601, 602 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assisted by a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions within a same subframe.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 601. The PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 601 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 601 b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 611 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 601. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 601.

The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the DCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an EREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN nodes 611 may be configured to communicate with one another via interface 612. In embodiments where the system 600 is an LTE system (e.g., when CN 620 is an EPC 720 as in FIG. 7), the interface 612 may be an X2 interface 612. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 611 (e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC 620, and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC 620. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, and may be used to communicate information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from a MeNB to an SeNB; information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a UE 601 from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to a UE 601; information about a current minimum desired buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and the like. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality, including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user plane transport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well as inter-cell interference coordination functionality.

In embodiments where the system 600 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 620 is an 5GC 820 as in FIG. 8), the interface 612 may be an Xn interface 612. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 611 (e.g., two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC 620, between a RAN node 611 (e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC 620 and an eNB, and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC 620. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 601 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 611. The mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 611 to new (target) serving RAN node 611; and control of user plane tunnels between old (source) serving RAN node 611 to new (target) serving RAN node 611. A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that is built on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may provide the guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The RAN 610 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, core network (CN) 620. The CN 620 may comprise a plurality of network elements 622, which are configured to offer various data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 601) who are connected to the CN 620 via the RAN 610. The components of the CN 620 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions.

Generally, the application server 630 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 630 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 601 via the EPC 620.

In embodiments, the CN 620 may be a 5GC (referred to as “5GC 620” or the like), and the RAN 610 may be connected with the CN 620 via an NG interface 613. In embodiments, the NG interface 613 may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 614, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 611 and a UPF, and the S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 615, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 611 and AMFs. Embodiments where the CN 620 is a 5GC 620 are discussed in more detail with regard to FIG. 8.

In embodiments, the CN 620 may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC 620” or the like), while in other embodiments, the CN 620 may be an EPC). Where CN 620 is an EPC (referred to as “EPC 620” or the like), the RAN 610 may be connected with the CN 620 via an S1 interface 613. In embodiments, the S1 interface 613 may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 614, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 611 and the S-GW, and the S1-MME interface 615, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 611 and MMES. An example architecture wherein the CN 620 is an EPC 620 is shown by FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example architecture of a system 700 including a first CN 720, in accordance with various embodiments. In this example, system 700 may implement the LTE standard wherein the CN 720 is an EPC 720 that corresponds with CN 620 of FIG. 6. Additionally, the UE 701 may be the same or similar as the UEs 601 of FIG. 6, and the E-UTRAN 710 may be a RAN that is the same or similar to the RAN 610 of FIG. 6, and which may include RAN nodes 611 discussed previously. The CN 720 may comprise MMES 721, an S-GW 722, a P-GW 723, a HSS 724, and a SGSN 725.

The MMES 721 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy SGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of a UE 701. The MMES 721 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as “EPS MM” or “EMM” in E-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. that are used to maintain knowledge about a present location of the UE 701, provide user identity confidentiality, and/or perform other like services to users/subscribers. Each UE 701 and the MME 721 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and an MM context may be established in the UE 701 and the MME 721 when an attach procedure is successfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE 701. The MMES 721 may be coupled with the HSS 724 via an S6a reference point, coupled with the SGSN 725 via an S3 reference point, and coupled with the S-GW 722 via an S11 reference point.

The SGSN 725 may be a node that serves the UE 701 by tracking the location of an individual UE 701 and performing security functions. In addition, the SGSN 725 may perform Inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G/3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by the MMES 721; handling of UE 701 time zone functions as specified by the MMES 721; and MME selection for handovers to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between the MMES 721 and the SGSN 725 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle and/or active states.

The HSS 724 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The EPC 720 may comprise one or several HSSs 724, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 724 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 724 and the MMEs 721 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the EPC 720 between HSS 724 and the MMEs 721.

The S-GW 722 may terminate the S1 interface 613 (“S1-U” in FIG. 7) toward the RAN 710, and routes data packets between the RAN 710 and the EPC 720. In addition, the S-GW 722 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The S11 reference point between the S-GW 722 and the MMEs 721 may provide a control plane between the MMEs 721 and the S-GW 722. The S-GW 722 may be coupled with the P-GW 723 via an S5 reference point.

The P-GW 723 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN 730. The P-GW 723 may route data packets between the EPC 720 and external networks such as a network including the application server 630 (alternatively referred to as an “AF”) via an IP interface 625 (see e.g., FIG. 6). In embodiments, the P-GW 723 may be communicatively coupled to an application server (application server 630 of FIG. 6 or PDN 730 in FIG. 7) via an IP communications interface 625 (see, e.g., FIG. 6). The S5 reference point between the P-GW 723 and the S-GW 722 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 723 and the S-GW 722. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 722 relocation due to UE 701 mobility and if the S-GW 722 needs to connect to a non-collocated P-GW 723 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 723 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 723 and the packet data network (PDN) 730 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The P-GW 723 may be coupled with a PCRF 726 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 726 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC 720. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 726 in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE 701's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE 701's IP-CAN session, a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within an HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 726 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 730 via the P-GW 723. The application server 730 may signal the PCRF 726 to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate QoS and charging parameters. The PCRF 726 may provision this rule into a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 730. The Gx reference point between the PCRF 726 and the P-GW 723 may allow for the transfer of QoS policy and charging rules from the PCRF 726 to PCEF in the P-GW 723. An Rx reference point may reside between the PDN 730 (or “AF 730”) and the PCRF 726.

FIG. 8 illustrates an architecture of a system 800 including a second CN 820 in accordance with various embodiments. The system 800 is shown to include a UE 801, which may be the same or similar to the UEs 601 and UE 701 discussed previously; a (R)AN 810, which may be the same or similar to the RAN 610 and RAN 710 discussed previously, and which may include RAN nodes 611 discussed previously; and a DN 803, which may be, for example, operator services, Internet access or 3rd party services; and a 5GC 820. The 5GC 820 may include an AUSF 822; an AMF 821; a SMF 824; a NEF 823; a PCF 826; a NRF 825; a UDM 827; an AF 828; a UPF 802; and a NSSF 829.

The UPF 802 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to DN 803, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 802 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform Uplink Traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 802 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network. The DN 803 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services. DN 803 may include, or be similar to, application server 630 discussed previously. The UPF 802 may interact with the SMF 824 via an N4 reference point between the SMF 824 and the UPF 802.

The AUSF 822 may store data for authentication of UE 801 and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF 822 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 822 may communicate with the AMF 821 via an N12 reference point between the AMF 821 and the AUSF 822; and may communicate with the UDM 827 via an N13 reference point between the UDM 827 and the AUSF 822. Additionally, the AUSF 822 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 821 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering UE 801, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 821 may be a termination point for the an N11 reference point between the AMF 821 and the SMF 824. The AMF 821 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 801 and the SMF 824, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 821 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 801 and an SMSF (not shown by FIG. 8). AMF 821 may act as SEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF 822 and the UE 801, receipt of an intermediate key that was established as a result of the UE 801 authentication process. Where USIM based authentication is used, the AMF 821 may retrieve the security material from the AUSF 822. AMF 821 may also include a SCM function, which receives a key from the SEA that it uses to derive access-network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF 821 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the (R)AN 810 and the AMF 821; and the AMF 821 may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signalling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection.

AMF 821 may also support NAS signalling with a UE 801 over an N3 IWF interface. The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. N3IWF may be a termination point for the N2 interface between the (R)AN 810 and the AMF 821 for the control plane, and may be a termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 810 and the UPF 802 for the user plane. As such, the AMF 821 may handle N2 signalling from the SMF 824 and the AMF 821 for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate/de-encapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnelling, mark N3 user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS corresponding to N3 packet marking taking into account QoS requirements associated with such marking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control-plane NAS signalling between the UE 801 and AMF 821 via an N1 reference point between the UE 801 and the AMF 821, and relay uplink and downlink user-plane packets between the UE 801 and UPF 802. The N3IWF also provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE 801. The AMF 821 may exhibit an Namf service-based interface, and may be a termination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs 821 and an N17 reference point between the AMF 821 and a 5G-EIR (not shown by FIG. 8).

The UE 801 may need to register with the AMF 821 in order to receive network services. RM is used to register or deregister the UE 801 with the network (e.g., AMF 821), and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 821). The UE 801 may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or an RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, the UE 801 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 821 holds no valid location or routing information for the UE 801 so the UE 801 is not reachable by the AMF 821. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 801 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 821 may hold a valid location or routing information for the UE 801 so the UE 801 is reachable by the AMF 821. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 801 may perform mobility Registration Update procedures, perform periodic Registration Update procedures triggered by expiration of the periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that the UE 801 is still active), and perform a Registration Update procedure to update UE capability information or to re-negotiate protocol parameters with the network, among others.

The AMF 821 may store one or more RM contexts for the UE 801, where each RM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context may be a data structure, database object, etc. that indicates or stores, inter alia, a registration state per access type and the periodic update timer. The AMF 821 may also store a 5GC MM context that may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In various embodiments, the AMF 821 may store a CE mode B Restriction parameter of the UE 801 in an associated MM context or RM context. The AMF 821 may also derive the value, when needed, from the UE's usage setting parameter already stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RM context).

CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 801 and the AMF 821 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 801 and the CN 820, and comprises both the signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and the N2 connection for the UE 801 between the AN (e.g., RAN 810) and the AMF 821. The UE 801 may operate in one of two CM states, CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE 801 is operating in the CM-IDLE state/mode, the UE 801 may have no NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 821 over the N1 interface, and there may be (R)AN 810 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE 801. When the UE 801 is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state/mode, the UE 801 may have an established NAS signaling connection with the AMF 821 over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 810 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE 801. Establishment of an N2 connection between the (R)AN 810 and the AMF 821 may cause the UE 801 to transition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and the UE 801 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode when N2 signaling between the (R)AN 810 and the AMF 821 is released.

The SMF 824 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, modify and release, including tunnel maintain between UPF and AN node); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF over N2 to AN; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between a UE 801 and a data network (DN) 803 identified by a Data Network Name (DNN). PDU sessions may be established upon UE 801 request, modified upon UE 801 and 5GC 820 request, and released upon UE 801 and 5GC 820 request using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between the UE 801 and the SMF 824. Upon request from an application server, the 5GC 820 may trigger a specific application in the UE 801. In response to receipt of the trigger message, the UE 801 may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts/information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE 801. The identified application(s) in the UE 801 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. The SMF 824 may check whether the UE 801 requests are compliant with user subscription information associated with the UE 801. In this regard, the SMF 824 may retrieve and/or request to receive update notifications on SMF 824 level subscription data from the UDM 827.

The SMF 824 may include the following roaming functionality: handling local enforcement to apply QoS SLAB (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful intercept (in VPLMN for SM events and interface to LI system); and support for interaction with external DN for transport of signalling for PDU session authorization/authentication by external DN. An N16 reference point between two SMFs 824 may be included in the system 800, which may be between another SMF 824 in a visited network and the SMF 824 in the home network in roaming scenarios. Additionally, the SMF 824 may exhibit the Nsmf service-based interface.

The NEF 823 may provide means for securely exposing the services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, Application Functions (e.g., AF 828), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 823 may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle the AFs. NEF 823 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 828 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 823 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 823 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of other network functions. This information may be stored at the NEF 823 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 823 to other NFs and AFs, and/or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 823 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

The NRF 825 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 825 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 825 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 826 may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behaviour. The PCF 826 may also implement an FE to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 827. The PCF 826 may communicate with the AMF 821 via an N15 reference point between the PCF 826 and the AMF 821, which may include a PCF 826 in a visited network and the AMF 821 in case of roaming scenarios. The PCF 826 may communicate with the AF 828 via an N5 reference point between the PCF 826 and the AF 828; and with the SMF 824 via an N7 reference point between the PCF 826 and the SMF 824. The system 800 and/or CN 820 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 826 (in the home network) and a PCF 826 in a visited network. Additionally, the PCF 826 may exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 827 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 801. For example, subscription data may be communicated between the UDM 827 and the AMF 821 via an N8 reference point between the UDM 827 and the AMF. The UDM 827 may include two parts, an application FE and a UDR (the FE and UDR are not shown by FIG. 8). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 827 and the PCF 826, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 801) for the NEF 823. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 827, PCF 826, and NEF 823 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR may interact with the SMF 824 via an N10 reference point between the UDM 827 and the SMF 824. UDM 827 may also support SMS management, wherein an SMS-FE implements the similar application logic as discussed previously. Additionally, the UDM 827 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 828 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE may be a mechanism that allows the 5GC 820 and AF 828 to provide information to each other via NEF 823, which may be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, the network operator and third party services may be hosted close to the UE 801 access point of attachment to achieve an efficient service delivery through the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC may select a UPF 802 close to the UE 801 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 802 to DN 803 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 828. In this way, the AF 828 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 828 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 828 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 828 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

The NSSF 829 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 801. The NSSF 829 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 829 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 801, or a list of candidate AMF(s) 821 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 825. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 801 may be triggered by the AMF 821 with which the UE 801 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 829, which may lead to a change of AMF 821. The NSSF 829 may interact with the AMF 821 via an N22 reference point between AMF 821 and NSSF 829; and may communicate with another NSSF 829 in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown by FIG. 8). Additionally, the NSSF 829 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

As discussed previously, the CN 820 may include an SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to/from the UE 801 to/from other entities, such as an SMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF 821 and UDM 827 for a notification procedure that the UE 801 is available for SMS transfer (e.g., set a UE not reachable flag, and notifying UDM 827 when UE 801 is available for SMS).

The CN 120 may also include other elements that are not shown by FIG. 8, such as a Data Storage system/architecture, a 5G-EIR, a SEPP, and the like. The Data Storage system may include a SDSF, an UDSF, and/or the like. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured data into/from the UDSF (e.g., UE contexts), via N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF (not shown by FIG. 8). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data or individual NFs may each have their own UDSF located at or near the individual NFs. Additionally, the UDSF may exhibit an Nudsf service-based interface (not shown by FIG. 8). The 5G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status of PEI for determining whether particular equipment/entities are blacklisted from the network; and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on inter-PLMN control plane interfaces.

Additionally, there may be many more reference points and/or service-based interfaces between the NF services in the NFs; however, these interfaces and reference points have been omitted from FIG. 8 for clarity. In one example, the CN 820 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between the MME (e.g., MME 721) and the AMF 821 in order to enable interworking between CN 820 and CN 720. Other example interfaces/reference points may include an N5g-EIR service-based interface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between the NRF in the visited network and the NRF in the home network; and an N31 reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF in the home network.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 900 in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 900 (or “system 900”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node such as the RAN nodes 611 and/or AP 606 shown and described previously, application server(s) 630, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. In other examples, the system 900 could be implemented in or by a UE.

The system 900 includes application circuitry 905, baseband circuitry 910, one or more radio front end modules (RFEMs) 915, memory circuitry 920, power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 925, power tee circuitry 930, network controller circuitry 935, network interface connector 940, satellite positioning circuitry 945, and user interface 950. In some embodiments, the device 900 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device. For example, said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations.

Application circuitry 905 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry 905 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 900. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 905 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 905 may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to the various embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 905 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s), Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; ARM-based processor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-A family of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium™, Inc.; a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system 900 may not utilize application circuitry 905, and instead may include a special-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC or 5GC, for example.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 905 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. As examples, the programmable processing devices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, the circuitry of application circuitry 905 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 905 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 910 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 910 are discussed infra with regard to FIG. 11.

User interface circuitry 950 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 900 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system 900. User interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 915 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 1111 of FIG. 11 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 915, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 920 may include one or more of volatile memory including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. Memory circuitry 920 may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 925 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detect one or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions. The power tee circuitry 930 may provide for electrical power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment 900 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 935 may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment 900 via network interface connector 940 using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuitry 935 may include one or more dedicated processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuitry 935 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 945 includes circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 945 comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 945 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 945 may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 910 and/or RFEMs 915 to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 945 may also provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry 905, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN nodes 611, etc.), or the like.

The components shown by FIG. 9 may communicate with one another using interface circuitry, which may include any number of bus and/or interconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a platform 1000 (or “device 1000”) in accordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computer platform 1000 may be suitable for use as UEs 601, 602, 701, application servers 630, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The platform 1000 may include any combinations of the components shown in the example. The components of platform 1000 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform 1000, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of FIG. 10 is intended to show a high level view of components of the computer platform 1000. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

Application circuitry 1005 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose I/O, memory card controllers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry 1005 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 1000. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 905 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing element, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 905 may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to the various embodiments herein.

As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 1005 may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. The processors of the application circuitry 1005 may also be one or more of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or Accelerated Processing Units (APUs); A5-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc., Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™ processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M family of processors; or the like. In some implementations, the application circuitry 1005 may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry 1005 and other components are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a single package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel® Corporation.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 1005 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 1005 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 1005 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 1010 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 1010 are discussed infra with regard to Figure XT.

The RFEMs 1015 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 1111 of FIG. 11 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 1015, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 1020 may include any number and type of memory devices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory circuitry 1020 may include one or more of volatile memory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry 1020 may be developed in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry 1020 may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memory circuitry 1020 may be on-die memory or registers associated with the application circuitry 1005. To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth, memory circuitry 1020 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. For example, the computer platform 1000 may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®.

Removable memory circuitry 1023 may include devices, circuitry, enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portable data storage devices with the platform 1000. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, and the like.

The platform 1000 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) that is used to connect external devices with the platform 1000. The external devices connected to the platform 1000 via the interface circuitry include sensor circuitry 1021 and electro-mechanical components (EMCs) 1022, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory circuitry 1023.

The sensor circuitry 1021 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information (sensor data) about the detected events to some other a device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, inter alia, inertia measurement units (IMUs) comprising accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detector and the like), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc.

EMCs 1022 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to enable platform 1000 to change its state, position, and/or orientation, or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs 1022 may be configured to generate and send messages/signalling to other components of the platform 1000 to indicate a current state of the EMCs 1022. Examples of the EMCs 1022 include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments, platform 1000 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 1022 based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and/or various clients.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform 1000 with positioning circuitry 1045. The positioning circuitry 1045 includes circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 1045 comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 1045 may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 1045 may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 910 and/or RFEMs 1015 to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 1045 may also provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry 1005, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, or the like

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform 1000 with Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry 1040. NFC circuitry 1040 is configured to provide contactless, short-range communications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between NFC circuitry 1040 and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform 1000 (e.g., an “NFC touchpoint”). NFC circuitry 1040 comprises an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled with the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC providing NFC functionalities to the NFC circuitry 1040 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to emit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFC circuitry 1040, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuitry 1040 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) that is proximate to the platform 1000.

The driver circuitry 1046 may include software and hardware elements that operate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform 1000, attached to the platform 1000, or otherwise communicatively coupled with the platform 1000. The driver circuitry 1046 may include individual drivers allowing other components of the platform 1000 to interact with or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present within, or connected to, the platform 1000. For example, driver circuitry 1046 may include a display driver to control and allow access to a display device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to a touchscreen interface of the platform 1000, sensor drivers to obtain sensor readings of sensor circuitry 1021 and control and allow access to sensor circuitry 1021, EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of the EMCs 1022 and/or control and allow access to the EMCs 1022, a camera driver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device, audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices.

The power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 1025 (also referred to as “power management circuitry 1025”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 1000. In particular, with respect to the baseband circuitry 1010, the PMIC 1025 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMIC 1025 may often be included when the platform 1000 is capable of being powered by a battery 1030, for example, when the device is included in a UE 601, 602, 701.

In some embodiments, the PMIC 1025 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the platform 1000. For example, if the platform 1000 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the platform 1000 may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the platform 1000 may transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform 1000 goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The platform 1000 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it must transition back to RRC_Connected state. An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

A battery 1030 may power the platform 1000, although in some examples the platform 1000 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery 1030 may be a lithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 1030 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 1030 may be a “smart battery,” which includes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or battery monitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform 1000 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 1030. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 1030 to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 1030. The BMS may communicate the information of the battery 1030 to the application circuitry 1005 or other components of the platform 1000. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry 1005 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 1030 or the current flow from the battery 1030. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 1000 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and the like.

A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid may be coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 1030. In some examples, the power block XS30 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 1000. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuits chosen may depend on the size of the battery 1030, and thus, the current required. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

User interface circuitry 1050 includes various input/output (I/O) devices present within, or connected to, the platform 1000, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 1000 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the platform 1000. The user interface circuitry 1050 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset, and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for showing information or otherwise conveying information, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or other like information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/or combinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one or more simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g., Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation of the platform 1000. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 1021 may be used as the input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or the like) and one or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In another example, NFC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processing device may be included to read electronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

Although not shown, the components of platform 1000 may communicate with one another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point-to-point interfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 11 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry 1110 and radio front end modules (RFEM) 1115 in accordance with various embodiments. The baseband circuitry 1110 corresponds to the baseband circuitry 910 and 1010 of FIGS. 9 and 10, respectively. The RFEM 1115 corresponds to the RFEM 915 and 1015 of FIGS. 9 and 10, respectively. As shown, the RFEMs 1115 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1106, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1108, antenna array 1111 coupled together at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 1110 includes circuitry and/or control logic configured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1106. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1110 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1110 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. The baseband circuitry 1110 is configured to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1106 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1106. The baseband circuitry 1110 is configured to interface with application circuitry 905/1005 (see FIGS. 9 and 10) for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 1106. The baseband circuitry 1110 may handle various radio control functions.

The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the baseband circuitry 1110 may include one or more single or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 1104A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 1104B, a 5G/NR baseband processor 1104C, or some other baseband processor(s) 1104D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1104A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 1104G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1104E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1104A-D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with the appropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memory cells. In various embodiments, the memory 1104G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU 1104E (or other baseband processor), is to cause the CPU 1104E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 1110, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of the RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®, Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®, ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by Qualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuitry 1110 includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 1104F. The audio DSP(s) 1104F include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, each of the processors 1104A-1104E include respective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory 1104G. The baseband circuitry 1110 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 1110; an application circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 905/1005 of FIGS. 9-11); an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 1106 of FIG. 11; a wireless hardware connectivity interface to send/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/Bluetooth® Low Energy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a power management interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMIC 1025.

In alternate embodiments (which may be combined with the above described embodiments), baseband circuitry 1110 comprises one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnect subsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 1110 may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front end modules 1115).

Although not shown by FIG. 11, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1110 includes individual processing device(s) to operate one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a “multi-protocol baseband processor” or “protocol processing circuitry”) and individual processing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or 5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 1110 and/or RF circuitry 1106 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some other suitable cellular communication circuitry. In the first example, the protocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the baseband circuitry 1110 and/or RF circuitry 1106 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system. In the second example, the protocol processing circuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 1104G) to store program code and data for operating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processing cores to execute the program code and perform various operations using the data. The baseband circuitry 1110 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 1110 discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged IC soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuitry 1110 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1110 and RF circuitry 1106 may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or System-in-Package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1110 may be implemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with and RF circuitry 1106 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 1106). In yet another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1110 and the application circuitry 905/1005 may be implemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board (e.g., a “multi-chip package”).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1110 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1110 may support communication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1110 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1106 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 1106 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1108 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1110. RF circuitry 1106 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1110 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1108 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1106 may include mixer circuitry 1106 a, amplifier circuitry 1106 b and filter circuitry 1106 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1106 may include filter circuitry 1106 c and mixer circuitry 1106 a. RF circuitry 1106 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1106 d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1106 d. The amplifier circuitry 1106 b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1106 c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 1110 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1106 d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1108. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1110 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1106 c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 1110 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1106.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1106 d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 1106 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1106 d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1106 a of the RF circuitry 1106 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1106 d may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1110 or the application circuitry 905/1005 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the application circuitry 905/1005.

Synthesizer circuitry 1106 d of the RF circuitry 1106 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1106 d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 1108 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 1111, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1106 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1108 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 1106 for transmission by one or more of antenna elements of antenna array 1111. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 1106, solely in the FEM circuitry 1108, or in both the RF circuitry 1106 and the FEM circuitry 1108.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1108 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 1108 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1108 may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1106). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1108 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1106), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1111.

The antenna array 1111 comprises one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, digital baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1110 is converted into analog RF signals (e.g., modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 1111 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, direction, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed in a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein. The antenna array 1111 may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennas that are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 1111 may be formed in as a patch of metal foil (e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled with the RF circuitry 1106 and/or FEM circuitry 1108 using metal transmission lines or the like.

Processors of the application circuitry 905/1005 and processors of the baseband circuitry 1110 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 1110, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 905/1005 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHY layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

FIG. 12 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments. In particular, FIG. 12 includes an arrangement 1200 showing interconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The following description of FIG. 12 is provided for various protocol layers/entities that operate in conjunction with the 5G/NR system standards and LTE system standards, but some or all of the aspects of FIG. 12 may be applicable to other wireless communication network systems as well.

The protocol layers of arrangement 1200 may include one or more of PHY 1210, MAC 1220, RLC 1230, PDCP 1240, SDAP 1247, RRC 1255, and NAS layer 1257, in addition to other higher layer functions not illustrated. The protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., items 1259, 1256, 1250, 1249, 1245, 1235, 1225, and 1215 in FIG. 12) that may provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

The PHY 1210 may transmit and receive physical layer signals 1205 that may be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. The physical layer signals 1205 may comprise one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. The PHY 1210 may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, such as the RRC 1255. The PHY 1210 may still further perform error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In embodiments, an instance of PHY 1210 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of MAC 1220 via one or more PHY-SAP 1215. According to some embodiments, requests and indications communicated via PHY-SAP 1215 may comprise one or more transport channels.

Instance(s) of MAC 1220 may process requests from, and provide indications to, an instance of RLC 1230 via one or more MAC-SAPs 1225. These requests and indications communicated via the MAC-SAP 1225 may comprise one or more logical channels. The MAC 1220 may perform mapping between the logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 1210 via the transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or more logical channels from TBs delivered from the PHY 1210 via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

Instance(s) of RLC 1230 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of PDCP 1240 via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAP) 1235. These requests and indications communicated via RLC-SAP 1235 may comprise one or more RLC channels. The RLC 1230 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC 1230 may execute transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC 1230 may also execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLC re-establishment.

Instance(s) of PDCP 1240 may process requests from and provide indications to instance(s) of RRC 1255 and/or instance(s) of SDAP 1247 via one or more packet data convergence protocol service access points (PDCP-SAP) 1245. These requests and indications communicated via PDCP-SAP 1245 may comprise one or more radio bearers. The PDCP 1240 may execute header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

Instance(s) of SDAP 1247 may process requests from and provide indications to one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAP 1249. These requests and indications communicated via SDAP-SAP 1249 may comprise one or more QoS flows. The SDAP 1247 may map QoS flows to DRBs, and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1247 may be configured for an individual PDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 610 may control the mapping of QoS Flows to DRB(s) in two different ways, reflective mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 1247 of a UE 601 may monitor the QFIs of the DL packets for each DRB, and may apply the same mapping for packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 1247 of the UE 601 may map the UL packets belonging to the QoS flows(s) corresponding to the QoS flow ID(s) and PDU session observed in the DL packets for that DRB. To enable reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 810 may mark DL packets over the Uu interface with a QoS flow ID. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 1255 configuring the SDAP 1247 with an explicit QoS flow to DRB mapping rule, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 1247. In embodiments, the SDAP 1247 may only be used in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

The RRC 1255 may configure, via one or more management service access points (M-SAP), aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 1210, MAC 1220, RLC 1230, PDCP 1240 and SDAP 1247. In embodiments, an instance of RRC 1255 may process requests from and provide indications to one or more NAS entities 1257 via one or more RRC-SAPs 1256. The main services and functions of the RRC 1255 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in MIBs or SIBs related to the NAS), broadcast of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE 601 and RAN 610 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIBs and SIBs may comprise one or more IEs, which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures.

The NAS 1257 may form the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE 601 and the AMF 821. The NAS 1257 may support the mobility of the UEs 601 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 601 and a P-GW in LTE systems.

According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 1200 may be implemented in UEs 601, RAN nodes 611, AMF 821 in NR implementations or MME 721 in LTE implementations, UPF 802 in NR implementations or S-GW 722 and P-GW 723 in LTE implementations, or the like to be used for control plane or user plane communications protocol stack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 601, gNB 611, AMF 821, etc. may communicate with a respective peer protocol entity that may be implemented in or on another device using the services of respective lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication. In some embodiments, a gNB-CU of the gNB 611 may host the RRC 1255, SDAP 1247, and PDCP 1240 of the gNB that controls the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 611 may each host the RLC 1230, MAC 1220, and PHY 1210 of the gNB 611.

In a first example, a control plane protocol stack may comprise, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, NAS 1257, RRC 1255, PDCP 1240, RLC 1230, MAC 1220, and PHY 1210. In this example, upper layers 1260 may be built on top of the NAS 1257, which includes an IP layer 1261, an SCTP 1262, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1263.

In NR implementations, the AP 1263 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1263 for the NG interface 613 defined between the NG-RAN node 611 and the AMF 821, or the AP 1263 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1263 for the Xn interface 612 that is defined between two or more RAN nodes 611.

The NG-AP 1263 may support the functions of the NG interface 613 and may comprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An NG-AP EP may be a unit of interaction between the NG-RAN node 611 and the AMF 821. The NG-AP 1263 services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to a UE 601, 602) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the whole NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 611 and AMF 821). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for the sending of paging requests to NG-RAN nodes 611 involved in a particular paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 821 to establish, modify, and/or release a UE context in the AMF 821 and the NG-RAN node 611; a mobility function for UEs 601 in ECM-CONNECTED mode for intra-system HOs to support mobility within NG-RAN and inter-system HOs to support mobility from/to EPS systems; a NAS Signaling Transport function for transporting or rerouting NAS messages between UE 601 and AMF 821; a NAS node selection function for determining an association between the AMF 821 and the UE 601; NG interface management function(s) for setting up the NG interface and monitoring for errors over the NG interface; a warning message transmission function for providing means to transfer warning messages via NG interface or cancel ongoing broadcast of warning messages; a Configuration Transfer function for requesting and transferring of RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 611 via CN 620; and/or other like functions.

The XnAP 1263 may support the functions of the Xn interface 612 and may comprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the NG RAN 611 (or E-UTRAN 710), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The XnAP global procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE 601, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

In LTE implementations, the AP 1263 may be an S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP) 1263 for the S1 interface 613 defined between an E-UTRAN node 611 and an MME, or the AP 1263 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1263 for the X2 interface 612 that is defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 611.

The S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP) 1263 may support the functions of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may comprise S1-AP EPs. An S1-AP EP may be a unit of interaction between the E-UTRAN node 611 and an MME 721 within an LTE CN 620. The S1-AP 1263 services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services and non UE-associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

The X2AP 1263 may support the functions of the X2 interface 612 and may comprise X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 620, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The X2AP global procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE 601, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 1262 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 1262 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 611 and the AMF 821/MME 721 based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP 1261. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 1261 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functionality. In some implementations the IP layer 1261 may use point-to-point transmission to deliver and convey PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 611 may comprise L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF to exchange information.

In a second example, a user plane protocol stack may comprise, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, SDAP 1247, PDCP 1240, RLC 1230, MAC 1220, and PHY 1210. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE 601, the RAN node 611, and UPF 802 in NR implementations or an S-GW 722 and P-GW 723 in LTE implementations. In this example, upper layers 1251 may be built on top of the SDAP 1247, and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP/IP) 1252, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane layer (GTP-U) 1253, and a User Plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 1263.

The transport network layer 1254 (also referred to as a “transport layer”) may be built on IP transport, and the GTP-U 1253 may be used on top of the UDP/IP layer 1252 (comprising a UDP layer and IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the “Internet layer”) may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functionality. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example.

The GTP-U 1253 may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. The UDP/IP 1252 may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node 611 and the S-GW 722 may utilize an S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1210), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1220, RLC 1230, PDCP 1240, and/or SDAP 1247), the UDP/IP layer 1252, and the GTP-U 1253. The S-GW 722 and the P-GW 723 may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer, an L2 layer, the UDP/IP layer 1252, and the GTP-U 1253. As discussed previously, NAS protocols may support the mobility of the UE 601 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 601 and the P-GW 723.

Moreover, although not shown by FIG. 12, an application layer may be present above the AP 1263 and/or the transport network layer 1254. The application layer may be a layer in which a user of the UE 601, RAN node 611, or other network element interacts with software applications being executed, for example, by application circuitry 905 or application circuitry 1005, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for software applications to interact with communications systems of the UE 601 or RAN node 611, such as the baseband circuitry 1110. In some implementations the IP layer and/or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5-7, or portions thereof, of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI Layer 7—the application layer, OSI Layer 6—the presentation layer, and OSI Layer 5—the session layer).

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 13 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1300 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1310, one or more memory/storage devices 1320, and one or more communication resources 1330, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1340. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1302 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1300.

The processors 1310 may include, for example, a processor 1312 and a processor 1314. The processor(s) 1310 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 1320 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1320 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1330 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1304 or one or more databases 1306 via a network 1308. For example, the communication resources 1330 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 1350 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1310 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1350 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1310 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1320, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1350 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1300 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1304 or the databases 1306. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1310, the memory/storage devices 1320, the peripheral devices 1304, and the databases 1306 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 is one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed cause a user equipment (UE) to: receive, in a new radio (NR) wireless cellular network, a downlink control information (DCI) in a DCI format 0_1 or 1_1, wherein the DCI includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) request field to jointly trigger a SRS and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS); receive the CSI-RS based on the SRS request field; and encode the SRS for transmission by the UE based on the SRS request field.

Example 2 is the one or more media of Example 1, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, wherein the SRS is a first SRS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to: receive, in the NR wireless cellular network, a second DCI in a DCI format 2_3 to trigger a second SRS without triggering a CSI-RS; and encode the second SRS for transmission by the UE based on the second DCI.

Example 3 is the one or more media of Example 1, wherein the DCI and the CSI-RS are received in a same slot.

Example 4 is the one or more media of Example 1, wherein the CSI-RS is a first CSI-RS, wherein the DCI is in the DCI format 0_1, wherein the DCI further includes a CSI request field to trigger a second CSI-RS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to receive the second CSI-RS based on the CSI request field.

Example 5 is the one or more media of Example 1, further comprising receiving configuration information to indicate one or more parameters for the CSI-RS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.

Example 6 is the one or more media of Example 5, wherein the one or more parameters include a scheduling offset between reception of the DCI and reception of the triggered CSI-RS.

Example 7 is the one or more media of Example 5, wherein the configuration information further includes scheduling information for the SRS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.

Example 8 is the one or more media of Example 1, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, the SRS request field is a first SRS request field, and the SRS is a first SRS, wherein the first SRS is transmitted in a same bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier in which the first DCI is received, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to: receive a second DCI in the DCI format 0_1 or 1_1 that includes a second SRS request field to trigger a second SRS in a different BWP or component carrier from a BWP or component carrier in which the second DCI is received; and determine that no CSI-RS is triggered by the second SRS request field based on the second SRS being in the different BWP or component carrier.

Example 9 is the one or more media of Example 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the UE to apply, for receipt of the CSI-RS, QCL information used for a control channel resource set (CORESET) associated with a monitored search space with a lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within an active BWP of the serving cell are monitored.

Example 10 is the one or more media of Example 1, wherein the DCI is received in a frequency resource greater than 6 gigahertz.

Example 11 is one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed cause a next generation base station (gNB) to: encode for transmission by the gNB to a user equipment (UE), in a new radio (NR) wireless cellular network, a downlink control information (DCI) in a DCI format 0_1 or 1_1, wherein the DCI includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) request field to jointly trigger a SRS and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS); encode the CSI-RS for transmission by the gNB based on the SRS request field; and receive the SRS from the UE based on the SRS request field.

Example 12 is the one or more media of Example 11, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, wherein the SRS is a first SRS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the gNB to: encode for transmission by the gNB to the UE, in the NR wireless cellular network, a second DCI in a DCI format 2_3 to trigger a second SRS without triggering a CSI-RS; and receive the second SRS from the UE based on the second DCI.

Example 13 is the one or more media of Example 11, wherein the DCI and the CSI-RS are transmitted in a same slot.

Example 14 is the one or more media of Example 11, wherein the CSI-RS is a first CSI-RS, wherein the DCI is in the DCI format 0_1, wherein the DCI further includes a CSI request field to trigger a second CSI-RS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the gNB to encode the second CSI-RS for transmission by the gNB to the UE based on the CSI request field.

Example 15 is the one or more media of Example 11, further comprising encoding configuration information for transmission by the gNB to the UE, the configuration information to indicate one or more parameters for the CSI-RS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.

Example 16 is the one or more media of Example 15, wherein the one or more parameters include a scheduling offset between the DCI and the triggered CSI-RS.

Example 17 is the one or more media of Example 15, wherein the configuration information further includes scheduling information for the SRS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.

Example 18 is the one or more media of Example 11, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, the SRS request field is a first SRS request field, and the SRS is a first SRS, wherein the first SRS is received in a same bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier in which the DCI is transmitted, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to: encode, for transmission by the gNB to the UE, a second DCI in the DCI format 0_1 or 1_1 that includes a second SRS request field to trigger a second SRS in a different BWP or component carrier from a BWP or component carrier in which the second DCI is transmitted; wherein no CSI-RS is triggered by the second SRS request field.

Example 19 is the one or more media of Example 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the gNB to apply, for transmission of the CSI-RS, QCL information used for a control channel resource set (CORESET) associated with a monitored search space with a lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within an active BWP of the serving cell are monitored by the UE.

Example 20 is an apparatus to be employed by a next generation base station (gNB), the apparatus comprising: means for encoding a first downlink control information (DCI) for transmission to a user equipment (UE) in a first bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier (CC), the first DCI including a first sounding reference signal (SRS) request field to jointly trigger a first SRS and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) in the first BWP or CC; and means for encoding a second DCI for transmission to the UE or another UE in the first BWP or CC, the second DCI including a second SRS request field to trigger a second SRS in a second BWP or CC without triggering an associated CSI-RS, wherein the second DCI has a same DCI format as the first DCI.

Example 21 is the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the DCI format of the first and second DCI is DCI format 0_1 or 1_1.

Example 22 is the apparatus of Example 20, further comprising means for encoding a third DCI for transmission to the UE with a DCI format 2_3 to trigger a second SRS without triggering a CSI-RS.

Example 23 is the apparatus of Example 20, further comprising means for determining uplink channel quality information based on the first or second SRS.

Example 24 is the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the first and second DCI are transmitted in a New Radio (NR) Frequency Range 2 (FR2).

Example 25 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-24, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 26 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-24, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 27 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-24, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 28 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-24, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 29 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-24, or portions thereof.

Example 30 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-24, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 31 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 32 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 33 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example 34 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

ABBREVIATIONS

For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

4G Fourth Generation

5G Fifth Generation

5GC 5G Core network

ACK Acknowledgement

AF Application Function

AM Acknowledged Mode

AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate

AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

AN Access Network

ANR Automatic Neighbour Relation

AP Application Protocol, Antenna Port, Access Point

API Application Programming Interface

APN Access Point Name

ARP Allocation and Retention Priority

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

AS Access Stratum

ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One

AUSF Authentication Server Function

AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

BCH Broadcast Channel

BER Bit Error Ratio

BLER Block Error Rate

BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server

BSS Business Support System

BS Base Station

BSR Buffer Status Report

BW Bandwidth

BWP Bandwidth Part

C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity

CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority

CAPEX CAPital EXpenditure

CBRA Contention Based Random Access

CC Component Carrier, Country Code, Cryptographic Checksum

CCA Clear Channel Assessment

CCE Control Channel Element

CCCH Common Control Channel

CE Coverage Enhancement

CDM Content Delivery Network

CDMA Code-Division Multiple Access

CFRA Contention Free Random Access

CG Cell Group

CI Cell Identity

CID Cell-ID (e.g., positioning method)

CIM Common Information Model

CIR Carrier to Interference Ratio

CK Cipher Key

CM Connection Management, Conditional Mandatory

CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service

CMD Command

CMS Cloud Management System

CO Conditional Optional

CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point

CORESET Control Resource Set

COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf

CP Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Connection Point

CPD Connection Point Descriptor

CPE Customer Premise Equipment

CPICH Common Pilot Channel

CQI Channel Quality Indicator

CPU CSI processing unit, Central Processing Unit

C/R Command/Response field bit

CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN

CRB Common Resource Block

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRI Channel-State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator

C-RNTI Cell RNTI

CS Circuit Switched

CSAR Cloud Service Archive

CSI Channel-State Information

CSI-IM CSI Interference Measurement

CSI-RS CSI Reference Signal

CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power

CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal received quality

CSI-SINR CSI signal-to-noise and interference ratio

CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access

CSMA/CA CSMA with collision avoidance

CSS Common Search Space, Cell-specific Search Space

CTS Clear-to-Send

CW Codeword

CWS Contention Window Size

D2D Device-to-Device

DC Dual Connectivity, Direct Current

DCI Downlink Control Information

DF Deployment Flavour

DL Downlink

DMTF Distributed Management Task Force

DPDK Data Plane Development Kit

DM-RS, DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

DN Data network

DRB Data Radio Bearer

DRS Discovery Reference Signal

DRX Discontinuous Reception

DSL Domain Specific Language. Digital Subscriber Line

DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer

DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot

E-LAN Ethernet Local Area Network

E2E End-to-End

ECCA extended clear channel assessment, extended CCA

ECCE Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE

ED Energy Detection

EDGE Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution)

EGMF Exposure Governance Management Function

EGPRS Enhanced GPRS

EIR Equipment Identity Register

eLAA enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, enhanced LAA

EM Element Manager

eMBB enhanced Mobile Broadband

EMS Element Management System

eNB evolved NodeB, E-UTRAN Node B

EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

EPC Evolved Packet Core

EPDCCH enhanced PDCCH, enhanced Physical Downlink Control Cannel

EPRE Energy per resource element

EPS Evolved Packet System

EREG enhanced REG, enhanced resource element groups

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System

eUICC embedded UICC, embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card

E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

F1AP F1 Application Protocol

F1-C F1 Control plane interface

F1-U F1 User plane interface

FACCH Fast Associated Control CHannel

FACCH/F Fast Associated Control Channel/Full rate

FACCH/H Fast Associated Control Channel/Half rate

FACH Forward Access Channel

FAUSCH Fast Uplink Signalling Channel

FB Functional Block

FBI Feedback Information

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FCCH Frequency Correction CHannel

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FDM Frequency Division Multiplex

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

FE Front End

FEC Forward Error Correction

FFS For Further Study

FFT Fast Fourier Transformation

feLAA further enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, further enhanced LAA

FN Frame Number

FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array

FR Frequency Range

G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

GLONASS GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Engl., Global Navigation Satellite System)

gNB Next Generation NodeB

gNB-CU gNB-centralized unit, Next Generation NodeB centralized unit

gNB-DU gNB-distributed unit, Next Generation NodeB distributed unit

GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Groupe Spécial Mobile

GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

GTP-U GPRS Tunnelling Protocol for User Plane

GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identifier

GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity

HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HANDO, HO Handover

HFN HyperFrame Number

HHO Hard Handover

HLR Home Location Register

HN Home Network

HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network

HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access

HSN Hopping Sequence Number

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HSS Home Subscriber Server

HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access

HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

HTTPS Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http/1.1 over SSL, i.e. port 443)

I-Block Information Block

ICCID Integrated Circuit Card Identification

ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination

ID Identity, identifier

IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform

IE Information element

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IEI Information Element Identifier

IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

IF Infrastructure

IM Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia

IMC IMS Credentials

IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

IMGI International mobile group identity

IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity

IMPU IP Multimedia PUblic identity

IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity

IoT Internet of Things

IP Internet Protocol

Ipsec IP Security, Internet Protocol Security

IP-CAN IP-Connectivity Access Network

IP-M IP Multicast

IPv4 Internet Protocol Version 4

IPv6 Internet Protocol Version 6

IR Infrared

IRP Integration Reference Point

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

ISIM IM Services Identity Module

ISO International Organisation for Standardisation

ISP Internet Service Provider

IWF Interworking-Function

I-WLAN Interworking WLAN

K Constraint length of the convolutional code, USIM Individual key

kB Kilobyte (1000 bytes)

kbps kilo-bits per second

Kc Ciphering key

Ki Individual subscriber authentication key

KPI Key Performance Indicator

KQI Key Quality Indicator

KSI Key Set Identifier

ksps kilo-symbols per second

KVM Kernel Virtual Machine

L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)

L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power

L2 Layer 2 (data link layer)

L3 Layer 3 (network layer)

LAA Licensed Assisted Access

LAN Local Area Network

LBT Listen Before Talk

LCM LifeCycle Management

LCR Low Chip Rate

LCS Location Services

LI Layer Indicator

LLC Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility

LPLMN Local PLMN

LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

LSB Least Significant Bit

LTE Long Term Evolution

LWA LTE-WLAN aggregation

LWIP LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel

LTE Long Term Evolution

M2M Machine-to-Machine

MAC Medium Access Control (protocol layering context)

MAC Message authentication code (security/encryption context)

MAC-A MAC used for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context)

MAC-I MAC used for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3 context)

MANO Management and Orchestration

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service

MB SFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network

MCC Mobile Country Code

MCG Master Cell Group

MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time

MCS Modulation and coding scheme

MDAF Management Data Analytics Function

MDAS Management Data Analytics Service

MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

ME Mobile Equipment

MeNB master eNB

MER Message Error Ratio

MGL Measurement Gap Length

MGRP Measurement Gap Repetition Period

MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base

MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

MLC Mobile Location Centre

MM Mobility Management

MME Mobility Management Entity

MN Master Node

MO Measurement Object, Mobile Originated

MPBCH MTC Physical Broadcast CHannel

MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control CHannel

MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared CHannel

MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access CHannel

MPUSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel

MPLS MultiProtocol Label Switching

MS Mobile Station

MSB Most Significant Bit

MSC Mobile Switching Centre

MSI Minimum System Information, MCH Scheduling Information

MSID Mobile Station Identifier

MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number

MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number

MT Mobile Terminated, Mobile Termination

MTC Machine-Type Communications

mMTC massive MTC, massive Machine-Type Communications

MU-MIMO Multi User MIMO

MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS

NACK Negative Acknowledgement

NAI Network Access Identifier

NAS Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum layer

NCT Network Connectivity Topology

NEC Network Capability Exposure

NE-DC NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity

NEF Network Exposure Function

NF Network Function

NFP Network Forwarding Path

NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor

NFV Network Functions Virtualization

NFVI NFV Infrastructure

NFVO NFV Orchestrator

NG Next Generation, Next Gen

NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

NM Network Manager

NMS Network Management System

N-PoP Network Point of Presence

NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB

NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast CHannel

NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control CHannel

NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared CHannel

NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel

NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared CHannel

NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal

NSSS Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal

NR New Radio, Neighbour Relation

NRF NF Repository Function

NRS Narrowband Reference Signal

NS Network Service

NSA Non-Standalone operation mode

NSD Network Service Descriptor

NSR Network Service Record

NSSAI ‘Network Slice Selection Assistance Information

S-NNSAI Single-NSSAI

NSSF Network Slice Selection Function

NW Network

NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, Narrowband WUS

NZP Non-Zero Power

O&M Operation and Maintenance

ODU2 Optical channel Data Unit—type 2

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

OOB Out-of-band

OPEX OPerating EXpense

OSI Other System Information

OSS Operations Support System

OTA over-the-air

PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio

PAR Peak to Average Ratio

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

PC Power Control, Personal Computer

PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC

PCell Primary Cell

PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity

PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

PCF Policy Control Function

PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

PDN Packet Data Network, Public Data Network

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PDU Protocol Data Unit

PEI Permanent Equipment Identifiers

PFD Packet Flow Description

P-GW PDN Gateway

PHICH Physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel

PHY Physical layer

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

PIN Personal Identification Number

PM Performance Measurement

PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator

PNF Physical Network Function

PNFD Physical Network Function Descriptor

PNFR Physical Network Function Record

POC PTT over Cellular

PP, PTP Point-to-Point

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

PRACH Physical RACH

PRB Physical resource block

PRG Physical resource block group

ProSe Proximity Services, Proximity-Based Service

PRS Positioning Reference Signal

PS Packet Services

PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel

PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel

PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel

PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel

PSCell Primary SCell

PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

PT-RS Phase-tracking reference signal

PTT Push-to-Talk

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

QCI QoS class of identifier

QCL Quasi co-location

QFI QoS Flow ID, QoS Flow Identifier

QoS Quality of Service

QPSK Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying

QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI

RAB Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst

RACH Random Access Channel

RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial In User Service

RAN Radio Access Network

RAND RANDom number (used for authentication)

RAR Random Access Response

RAT Radio Access Technology

RAU Routing Area Update

RB Resource block, Radio Bearer

RBG Resource block group

REG Resource Element Group

Rel Release

REQ REQuest

RF Radio Frequency

RI Rank Indicator

MV Resource indicator value

RL Radio Link

RLC Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control layer

RLF Radio Link Failure

RLM Radio Link Monitoring

RLM-RS Reference Signal for RLM

RM Registration Management

RMC Reference Measurement Channel

RMSI Remaining MSI, Remaining Minimum System Information

RN Relay Node

RNC Radio Network Controller

RNL Radio Network Layer

RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

ROHC RObust Header Compression

RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control layer

RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference Signal

RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

RSSI Received Signal Strength IndicatorRSU Road Side Unit

RSTD Reference Signal Time difference

RTP Real Time Protocol

RTS Ready-To-Send

RTT Round Trip Time

Rx Reception, Receiving, Receiver

S1AP S1 Application Protocol

S1-MME S1 for the control plane

S1-U S1 for the user plane

S-GW Serving Gateway

S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity

S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier

SA Standalone operation mode

SAE System Architecture Evolution

SAP Service Access Point

SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor

SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC

SCell Secondary Cell

SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

SCG Secondary Cell Group

SCM Security Context Management

SCS Subcarrier Spacing

SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol

SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer

SDL Supplementary Downlink

SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function

SDP Service Discovery Protocol (Bluetooth related)

SDSF Structured Data Storage Function

SDU Service Data Unit

SEAF Security Anchor Function

SeNB secondary eNB

SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy

SFI Slot format indication

SFTD Space-Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and frame timing difference

SFN System Frame Number

SgNB Secondary gNB

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

S-GW Serving Gateway

SI System Information

SI-RNTI System Information RNTI

SIB System Information Block

SIM Subscriber Identity Module

SIP Session Initiated Protocol

SiP System in Package

SL Sidelink

SLA Service Level Agreement

SM Session Management

SMF Session Management Function

SMS Short Message Service

SMSF SMS Function

SMTC SSB-based Measurement Timing Configuration

SN Secondary Node, Sequence Number

SoC System on Chip

SON Self-Organizing Network

SpCell Special Cell

SP-CSI-RNTI Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI

SPS Semi-Persistent Scheduling

SQN Sequence number

SR Scheduling Request

SRB Signalling Radio Bearer

SRS Sounding Reference Signal

SS Synchronization Signal

SSB Synchronization Signal Block, SS/PBCH Block

SSBRI SS/PBCH Block Resource Indicator, Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator

SSC Session and Service Continuity

SS-RSRP Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Power

SS-RSRQ Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Quality

SS-SINR Synchronization Signal based Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio

SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal

SST Slice/Service Types

SU-MIMO Single User MIMO

SUL Supplementary Uplink

TA Timing Advance, Tracking Area

TAC Tracking Area Code

TAG Timing Advance Group

TAU Tracking Area Update

TB Transport Block

TBS Transport Block Size

TBD To Be Defined

TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator

TCP Transmission Communication Protocol

TDD Time Division Duplex

TDM Time Division Multiplexing

TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

TE Terminal Equipment

TEID Tunnel End Point Identifier

TFT Traffic Flow Template

TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

TNL Transport Network Layer

TPC Transmit Power Control

TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator

TR Technical Report

TRP, TRxP Transmission Reception Point

TRS Tracking Reference Signal

TRx Transceiver

TS Technical Specifications, Technical Standard

TTI Transmission Time Interval

Tx Transmission, Transmitting, Transmitter

U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

UCI Uplink Control Information

UE User Equipment

UDM Unified Data Management

UDP User Datagram Protocol

UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function

UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

UL Uplink

UM Unacknowledged Mode

UML Unified Modelling Language

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

UP User Plane

UPF User Plane Function

URI Uniform Resource Identifier

URL Uniform Resource Locator

URLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency

USB Universal Serial Bus

USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

USS UE-specific search space

UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access

UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot

V2I Vehicle-to-Infrastruction

V2P Vehicle-to-Pedestrian

V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle

V2X Vehicle-to-everything

VIM Virtualized Infrastructure Manager

VL Virtual Link,

VLAN Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network

VM Virtual Machine

VNF Virtualized Network Function

VNFFG VNF Forwarding Graph

VNFFGD VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor

VNFM VNF Manager

VoIP Voice-over-IP, Voice-over-Internet Protocol

VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network

VPN Virtual Private Network

VRB Virtual Resource Block

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network

X2-C X2-Control plane

X2-U X2-User plane

XML eXtensible Markup Language

XRES EXpected user RESponse

XOR eXclusive OR

ZC Zadoff-Chu

ZP Zero Power

Terminology

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or ink, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block.

The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed cause a user equipment (UE) to: receive, in a new radio (NR) wireless cellular network, a downlink control information (DCI) in a DCI format 0_1 or 1_1, wherein the DCI includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) request field, and wherein the SRS request field is configured to trigger a SRS and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS); receive the CSI-RS based on the SRS request field; and encode the SRS for transmission by the UE based on the SRS request field.
 2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, wherein the SRS is a first SRS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to: receive, in the NR wireless cellular network, a second DCI in a DCI format 2_3 to trigger a second SRS without triggering a CSI-RS; and encode the second SRS for transmission by the UE based on the second DCI.
 3. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the DCI and the CSI-RS are received in a same slot.
 4. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the CSI-RS is a first CSI-RS, wherein the DCI is in the DCI format 0_1, wherein the DCI further includes a CSI request field to trigger a second CSI-RS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to receive the second CSI-RS based on the CSI request field.
 5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to receive configuration information to indicate one or more parameters for the CSI-RS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.
 6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the one or more parameters include a scheduling offset between reception of the DCI and reception of the triggered CSI-RS.
 7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the configuration information further includes scheduling information for the SRS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.
 8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, the SRS request field is a first SRS request field, and the SRS is a first SRS, wherein the first SRS is transmitted in a same bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier in which the first DCI is received, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the UE to: receive a second DCI in the DCI format 0_1 or 1_1 that includes a second SRS request field to trigger a second SRS in a different BWP or component carrier from a BWP or component carrier in which the second DCI is received; and determine that no CSI-RS is triggered by the second SRS request field based on the second SRS being in the different BWP or component carrier.
 9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the UE to apply, for receipt of the CSI-RS, QCL information used for a control channel resource set (CORESET) associated with a monitored search space with a lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within an active BWP of the serving cell are monitored.
 10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the DCI is received in a frequency resource greater than 6 gigahertz.
 11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed cause a next generation base station (gNB) to: encode for transmission by the gNB to a user equipment (UE), in a new radio (NR) wireless cellular network, a downlink control information (DCI) in a DCI format 0_1 or 1_1, wherein the DCI includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) request field, and wherein the SRS request field is configured to trigger a SRS and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS); encode the CSI-RS for transmission by the gNB based on the SRS request field; and receive the SRS from the UE based on the SRS request field.
 12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, wherein the SRS is a first SRS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the gNB to: encode for transmission by the gNB to the UE, in the NR wireless cellular network, a second DCI in a DCI format 2_3 to trigger a second SRS without triggering a CSI-RS; and receive the second SRS from the UE based on the second DCI.
 13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the DCI and the CSI-RS are transmitted in a same slot.
 14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the CSI-RS is a first CSI-RS, wherein the DCI is in the DCI format 0_1, wherein the DCI further includes a CSI request field to trigger a second CSI-RS, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the gNB to encode the second CSI-RS for transmission by the gNB to the UE based on the CSI request field.
 15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the gNB to encode configuration information for transmission by the gNB to the UE, the configuration information to indicate one or more parameters for the CSI-RS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.
 16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the one or more parameters include a scheduling offset between the DCI and the triggered CSI-RS.
 17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the configuration information further includes scheduling information for the SRS triggered by respective values of the SRS request field.
 18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the DCI is a first DCI, the SRS request field is a first SRS request field, and the SRS is a first SRS, wherein the first SRS is received in a same bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier in which the DCI is transmitted, and wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the gNB to: encode, for transmission by the gNB to the UE, a second DCI in the DCI format 0_1 or 1_1 that includes a second SRS request field to trigger a second SRS in a different BWP or component carrier from a BWP or component carrier in which the second DCI is transmitted; wherein no CSI-RS is triggered by the second SRS request field.
 19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the gNB to apply, for transmission of the CSI-RS, QCL information used for a control channel resource set (CORESET) associated with a monitored search space with a lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within an active BWP of the serving cell are monitored by the UE.
 20. An apparatus to be employed by a next generation base station (gNB), the apparatus comprising: means for encoding a first downlink control information (DCI) for transmission to a user equipment (UE) in a first bandwidth part (BWP) or component carrier (CC), the first DCI including a first sounding reference signal (SRS) request field, wherein the first SRS request field is configured to trigger a first SRS and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) in the first BWP or CC; and means for encoding a second DCI for transmission to the UE or another UE in the first BWP or CC, the second DCI including a second SRS request field, wherein the second SRS request field is configured to trigger a second SRS in a second BWP or CC without triggering an associated CSI-RS, wherein the second DCI has a same DCI format as the first DCI.
 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the DCI format of the first and second DCI is DCI format 0_1 or 1_1.
 22. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising means for encoding a third DCI for transmission to the UE with a DCI format 2_3 to trigger a second SRS without triggering a CSI-RS.
 23. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising means for determining uplink channel quality information based on the first or second SRS.
 24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first and second DCI are transmitted in a New Radio (NR) Frequency Range 2 (FR2). 